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• New hire – For the first time in more than a decade, Ephrata’s famous Central Business District will have a manager. Downtown Ephrata Inc. President George D’Ilio confirmed Tuesday that the organization has indeed made its selection and the new manager will begin duty May 3. DEI, the non-profit corporation formed to continue and improve the revitalization of downtown Ephrata, has hired Marsha M. DiBonaventuro for the position which has been vacant since Jeri Miller left in 1993.

• Welcome home – Pfc. Jeremy Gehman of Akron returned home after spending the past year in Kuwait and Iraq. Serving his country has been important to Gehman as he told the many that joined him and his family at a homecoming party recently at the Ephrata VFW. Gehman is a 1998 graduate of Ephrata High Senior High School and attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania for three years studying criminology.

•Center problems – It’s a different town, a different county, a rented Diocese three-story building and doesn’t even have a playground. In fact, the Kindergarten Center of the Phoenixville School District in Chester County’s reason for opening had nothing to do with “enhancing developmentally appropriate” education. No, it was much simpler than that. They had a space problem. In the Ephrata Area School District, a Kindergarten Center is being proposed at Fulton Elementary School, primarily for an enhanced educational experience that put all the district’s kindergarten classes in the building. Next Monday, the Ephrata Area Board of Education will hold its Committee of the Whole meeting at the high school to hash out the fate of this proposal which is coupled with two other related items. Those items involve redistricting the students in grades 1-5, and closing the Washington Street School.

• Movie props – The leading role in the biggest blockbuster movie on the market right now, “The Paper,” hails from Ephrata. The role, of course, is that of “the paper.” As chronicled in an article last summer in The Ephrata Review, the newspaper props for the movie starring Michael Keaton and Glenn Close were printed at The Ephrata Review building on the square in downtown Ephrata.

• Mobile scanner – Ephrata Community Hospital will initiate computed tomography scanning services on a shared, mobile basis with Suburban General Hospital of Norristown later this year, hopefully as early as September, according to Lawrence Scanlan Jr., hospital president. The hospital board of directors unanimously approved the $1,162,000 project last month, first in the county, with the cost to be shared equally between the two hospitals.

• No dump – A hazardous waste dump is going to have to be opened somewhere in Pennsylvania, but Lancaster County should not be the site, according to a panel organized by the Red Rose Alliance. Three of the six members who addressed the question on hazardous waste agreed that the volume of waste in the state should be reduced by recycling but the remainder would have to be put in the dump “in someone’s back yard.” That “backyard” they said, should not be in Lancaster County.

• New classrooms – Specifications submitted by architect Elmer Adams for two “relocatable classrooms” were approved by the Ephrata Area School Board at a special meeting Monday night. The administration was authorized to advertise for bids April 10 to be opened April 29. Often called “portable” classrooms, they would not be be identical with the trailers used at the senior high school several years ago. Instead, the new structures, to be located at the Clay Elementary School, will be two-unit buildings each 12-by 36-feet. which will have electric wiring and heating.

• Residential drive – With contributions to date of $9,000 from the business, industrial and organizational phase of the drive, the Ephrata Recreation Center launched its residential drive on Monday. Under the direction of co-Chairman Paul L. Wechter of Akron and Dr. Daniel W. Springer of Ephrata, more than 200 solicitors will call on residents for their personal support of the center.

• Route 222 – Considerable opposition to the state’s plan for rebuilding Route 222 was voiced Friday at a public hearing at the Ephrata high school attended by some 450 persons. During the three-and-a-half hour afternoon session, 38 witnesses either endorsed or opposed the plan and 36 more handed in written statements, which Commonwealth officials said would have equal weight in the final evaluation. Of those who spoke, 16 approved the state’s plan and 22 opposed it.

• Agreement approved – At a special meeting of the Ephrata Merchants Association Monday, a plan to turn over the merchants parking lot on West Franklin Street to the borough on a purchase-lease agreement was approved.

• Library report – That the Ephrata Library is serving a long felt need here is substantiated by the fact that residents of Ephrata and the vicinity withdrew a total of 3,975 books during the months of January and February and added 346 new subscribers during the same two month period. This is remarkable in light of the fact that the library is forced to operate on a limited schedule of only four hours per day with reduced personnel because of limited funds and financial support.

• Hole-in-one – Ted Miller, shooting golf yesterday morning, was plummeted into the hole-in-one club when on the third hole of the Hiemenze course near Lancaster his drive with a No. 4 wood landed in the cup 190 yards away.

• Scholarship – Miss Ada Louise Kreider, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Kreider, Lititz, R4, and a member of the class of 1954 of Ephrata High School, has been awarded a four year scholarship of $150 per year to Gettysburg College.

• Partnership – A nine-year partnership in the grocery business was dissolved last Friday when Alfred G. Zinn purchased the share of his brother J. Charles Zinn in Givler’s Grocery.

• Progress – Again there is visible progress on what is hoped to be the completion of the new concrete roadway on Route 222 by sometime in the summer. Last week, steel girders arrived and were placed across the railroad span near Stevens.

• Celebration – William B. Rohrbach’s 50 years in the shoe business was celebrated last Friday evening by his associates at a dinner in the Reamstown hotel. He is president of the Ephrata Shoe Company.

• Entertained – Mary Sherr, teacher of English at Ephrata High School, entertained members of the victorious sophomore basketball team one recent evening at W. R. Goodman’s “Sweetland” Confectionery.

• Dinner – A dinner was served at the home of Sadie K. Mohler in honor of the basketball team. Present were Clarence Beck, Ira Arbegast, Roy Albright, Theodore “Stretch” Zerfass, Harry Brunner, Donald Von Nieda, John Stephan, Mr. Roland.

• Show time – At the Grand – William Fox in “Six Cylinded Love,” a special comedy.

100 Years Ago

Wednesday’s Ephrata Review

Issue of April 3, 1914

• Wheel trouble – A four-horse wagon belonging to Greybill Wenger broke down on South State Street recently. A front wheel stuck in the trolley track and was demolished. Considerable trouble was experienced in getting another wheel on the axle.

• Leaving – Dr. H. G. Reemsnyder moved from East Main Street to the corner of Lake and East Franklin streets in the house formerly occupied by Mrs Lizzie Mundshower.